{"id":5800,"date":"2012-07-12T07:28:57","date_gmt":"2012-07-12T12:28:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=5800"},"modified":"2012-07-12T07:28:57","modified_gmt":"2012-07-12T12:28:57","slug":"before-the-open-jul-12-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=5800","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Jul 12)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Thursday.<\/span>
\nThe Asian\/Pacific markets closed mostly down. Hong Kong and South Korea dropped more than 2%; Japan and Taiwan dropped more than 1%. Europe is currently down across the board, but London and Greece are the only 1% losers. Futures here in the States point towards a big gap down for the cash market.
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\nThe dollar is up. Oil and copper are down. Gold and silver are down.<\/span>
\nSan Bernardino has become the third California city to file for bankruptcy in the last couple weeks. Now that a couple have done it, the negative stigma is rapidly being wiped away. Many more will do it in the coming months.<\/span>
\nThe FOMC minutes revealed the Fed is open to more stimulus but the economy will have to get worse for there to be a consensus.<\/span>
\nInitial jobless claims come out an hour before today’s open. The following chart has been making rounds on the internet. In blue is the S&P 500. In red is the weekly initial jobless claims number. The correlation isn’t perfect, but it’s close enough to get your attention. If the weekly jobless number starts to increase (move down – note the left side scale), the market isn’t likely to rally. It’s something to pay attention to – especially since the monthly unemployment rate is a joke.<\/span>
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\nSVU is getting clobbered in premarket trading. They suspended their dividend and are said to be mulling their options including possibly selling the company.<\/span>
\nHere’s an update of the 60-min S&P chart. The index will open below support. That doesn’t automatically mean lights out, but added with the other warning recent warnings<\/a> things are rapidly getting worse.<\/span><\/span>
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\nBe defensive out there. There are a few oil stocks that look good and the REIT group is nicely set up. Otherwise I have little interest going long. On the short side, in most cases it’s too late to go short. Stocks have fallen many consecutive days, so I wouldn’t want to chase them. Whatever the next trending move is, there will be lots of time to jump aboard. More after the open.<\/span>
\nheadlines at Yahoo Finance<\/a><\/span>
\nheadlines at MarketWatch<\/a><\/span>
\ntoday’s upgrades\/downgrades<\/a><\/span>
\nthis week’s Earnings<\/a><\/span>
\nthis week’s Economic Numbers<\/a><\/span>
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